Vietnamese LGBT+ Terms: What is 'Chanh', explained. Other LGBT+ Vietnamese terms you should know.

In Vietnamese, pronouns such as bạn, em, bác, con, cháu are non-gender specific. But, with pronouns such as anh, chị, chú, cô, ông, bà, is different. They are all gendered. So, in the Overseas Vietnamese LGBTQ+ community, they have created the pronoun ‘chanh’ — a combination of chị and anh, which also means lemon/lime in Vietnamese. As chị (a feminine pronoun used to refer to a Vietnamese person who's a bit older) and anh (a masculine pronoun used to refer to a Vietnamese person who's a bit older), chanh is not gender-specific.

Why is there the pronoun 'chanh'? Simply because people reject the male-female binary construct of society (non-binary people). They are not male, or female, but belonging to an entirely different gender. Non-binary can be defined as an umbrella term for genderfluid people, genderqueer people, genderless people, or people belonging to a non-binary gender that doesn't exist in Western social constructs. Some examples of this are Two-Spirit of Native Americans, Hijra of India, Māhū of Native Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures, etc. (read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender

To contemporary Vietnamese audiences, it would sound quite confusing and foreign, as the global LGBTQ+ movement has only reached Vietnam recently. However, it is not a foreign concept at all; but rather inextricable to Vietnamese history. Previous to the Sinicization of Vietnamese society, ancient peoples of Vietnam, there weren't gender constructs yet, and no defined matriarchal, or patriarchal system. Sexual exploration was heavily encouraged, and modern constructs of sexuality and gender were non-existent. It was not until Confucianism entered Vietnam via Chinese domination that a patriarchal society formed. Even so, post-Chinese domination, in 1499, Đại Việt sử kí Toàn thư, the official national chronicle of the Vietnamese state, recorded that An Vương Lê Tuân, the eldest child of Lê Hiến Tông, the emperor of Vietnam at the time, wore feminine clothes, not confining themself to the gender constructs of the time.

Why is there the term chanh? Simply because they want to find a seat at the table in Vietnamese culture and society and reaffirm their Vietnamese identity. The Vietnamese creation story tells, Lạc Long Quân, the king of ancient Vietnam, and Âu Cơ, a mountain fairy married each other; then giving birth to a sac of 100 eggs. From thereon, 100 children were born, originating the Viet people. Pronouns in Vietnamese are basically a reflection of this myth.

Viet people consider themselves a giant family, as đồng bào (referring to the creation story that Viet people were born from a sac). Vietnamese culture considers that anyone living, anyone born, anyone with ancestry from Vietnam, as family. The pronouns reflect the culture.

But non-binary people, who don't identify with the binary gender construct of society, they came up with chanh. Chanh is to say: “I am non-binary but I am Vietnamese. I am one with the Vietnamese family.”

However, some non-binary folks feel chanh is not fitting for them, as chanh is the combination between a feminine pronoun and a masculine one. So, they came up with 'cam’ and ‘quýt’, which means "orange" and "tangerine" respectively. Since they all belong to the same Citrus family, it could also mean solidarity between non-binary people, as well as referring to the Vietnamese creation story.

Other Vietnamese LGBT+ terms you should know:

It isn't until that 2012, LGBTQ+ issues were brought up by NGOs. So, a thing to know about these terms is that they are only direct translations of foreign terms, as most native terms about LGBTQ+ people have been lost.

- Xu hướng tính dục: sexual orientation

- Bản dạng giới: gender

- Phi nhị giới: non-binary

- Vô tính: asexual

- Dị tính luyến ái: heterosexual

- Toan tính luyến ái: pansexual

- Đồng tính luyến ái: homosexual

- Chuyển giới: transgender

Slurs against LGBTQ+ people:

- Bê đê: a Viet-fied version of ‘pédéraste’, which is the equivalent of predator in French, and is a generally insulting and discriminatory term referring to homosexual men.

- Bóng: a discriminatory/ insulting term referring to queer people

- Ô môi: a discriminatory/ insulting term referring to homosexual women

Definitions for some Vietnamese pronouns:

chị = sister: used to refer to a person a little bit older than you

anh = brother: used to refer to a person a little bit older than you

chú = uncle: used to refer to a person older than you, but younger than your parents and older than a sibling

cô = aunt: used to refer to a person older than you, but younger than your parents and older than a sibling

bác (family member older than your parents): used to refer to a person older than your parents, but younger than your grandparents

ông = grandpa: used to refer to a person old as your grandpa

bà = grandma: used to refer to a person old as your grandma

em = little (sibling): used for a person younger than you, but not young enough to be your child

con = (your) child: used for a person young enough to be your child.